VILNIUS, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Lithuania's economy grew by a better-than-expected 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, securing modest full-year growth after a slump in 2009 and pointing to further recovery of the Baltic region.
Gross domestic product in 2010 rose 1.3 percent as the economy slowly picked up after a 14.7 percent contraction in 2009.
In the fourth quarter annual growth was well above a Reuters forecast for 3.0 percent, helped by rising exports, and the economy rose 1.7 percent from the third quarter. That marked a sharp acceleration from a revised 0.3 ...

Lithuania will always be a minnow in global terms. Yet, with a population of 3.4m, it is easily the biggest of the three Baltic states.
So, when the country announced much stronger-than-expected quarterly economic data on Friday, it raised recovery hopes for the whole region.
Lithuanian GDP registered year-on-year growth of 4.6 per cent in the fourth quarter, easily beating the consensus forecast of 3 per cent.
Danske Bank responded on Monday by lifting its forecasts for neighbouring Latvia and Estonia, which announce fourth quarter GDP figures next week.
“The Baltic ...